Indianapolis Colts Football

In a season that has been filled with records for Reggie Wayne, the Colts 12-year receiver can add another bullet point to his Hall of Fame resume this weekend.

With a touchdown against the Lions, Wayne will have scored a touchdown against every team in the NFC (Cleveland and the New York Jets remain the only teams in the AFC).

Wayne admitted prior to the season that learning a new offense has made him turn back the clock a bit and his production would indicate that. Now heading into Week 13 of the regular season, Wayne is feeling his age physically but mentally, it’s the players in the meeting room who are keeping him young.

“The days that I do feel a little weary, bones may hurt more than others, but when I get around those guys they get me going, keep me motivated,” Wayne said.

“That’s kind of been a plus for me this year, especially being in the receiver room where it’s me and everybody else is fairly new, and young other than Donnie Avery and Austin Collie. I love being around those guys. Hopefully we can keep this thing going.”

Those young Colts, sprinkled in with some very important veterans, has Indianapolis sitting at 7-4 with the final month of the regular season beginning this weekend.

From an age standpoint the receivers that Wayne shares the position with still remain young, but at this point of the year they have already experienced an entire college regular season.

“Those guys are professionals,” Wayne said of the rookie receivers. “They understand what it is to be in this league now. We don’t look at them as rookies any more. They are just guys that are all playing key roles in this offense.”

“They’ve adjusted to heavy note takers in the meetings. They pay attention to detail and they work at their craft. That’s all that you can ask them to do. The rest should take care of itself.”

It’s players like T.Y. Hilton and Lavon Brazill that keep the 34-yard old Wayne ‘motivated’ heading into the stretch run of the regular season.

That’s not the only thing that is motivating Wayne as the calendar turns to December.

Come Sunday, he knows he will have a coach, and more importantly a close friend, back in Indianapolis watching intently

“I talk to him all the time. I talk to him too much. My wife’s getting a little jealous,” Wayne said with a smile. He’s one of the biggest reasons why I’m here, why I came back.”

While the Colts have been winning four of their past five games, cornerback Vontae Davis has been merely an observer during the Colts successful month of November.

As the calendar turns to December, Davis looks to be back on the gridiron this weekend after being a full participant in practice the past two days.

“I’m just happy to be back with the team,” Davis said on Thursday. “We have a lot of good guys in the locker room and I mean it’s home for me right now. It’s football. I love football. It’s a fun game and I can’t wait to get back on the field.”

The potential addition of Davis in the secondary comes at a welcoming time for the Colts defense.

All-Pro wide receiver Calvin Johnson awaits the Colts this weekend and no matter who lines up across from him this weekend, you can expect multiple players to be assigned to him throughout the game.

“Put two guys over (Johnson) and even then sometimes he goes up and gets some balls,” Colts defensive coordinator Greg Manusky said of defending Johnson. “I’ve seen a good performance from him over the last couple of weeks and over the entire season. He’s a formidable guy that’s out there and we’ve got to defend him.”

Cornerbacks Darius Butler and Cassius Vaughn have been the starters the last three weeks after Jerraud Powers was placed on injured reserve with a toe injury following the Jaguars game on Nov. 8.

In trying to limit the league’s second best offense, Butler stressed trying to force someone other than No. 81 to make plays.

“Obviously, a lot of the offense is based around (Johnson) and they are going to get him the ball,” Butler said. “They’ve got a good quarterback and players around him. You have to limit his production to make somebody else beat you.”

During the past month, Davis has been thrilled with his teammates’ success and chooses to have a positive spin on his knee injury.

“It’s a blessing. Everything happens for a reason, a humbling experience,” Davis said of the injury. “

“My grandma always tells me, ‘Be patient, stuff might not happen when you want it to happen but you be patient, then it comes when you least expect it.”

What’s up Colts Nation!? There are some great games this weekend and a majority of them will have some sort of implications on our fantasy football rosters. What better way to get the fantasy week underway than a great Thursday night game between the Saints and the Falcons. I have Marques Colston on my team and I need a big game from him to help my chances this week.

I face off against one of the top teams in my league and I need a great performance from all of my players. A few transactions this week put me in a good spot as well. I went ahead and picked up Eagles RB Bryce Brown who everyone should know after last week’s Monday Night Football where he had 178 rushing yards and two touchdowns which added up to 33 fantasy points in my league.

You can check out my starting lineup this week and I don’t foresee any changes unless you think I need some. I’m always open for discussion just tweet me.

Now for my “start em” and “sit em” picks of the week.

Week 13 Start em: It seems like this guy had a coming out party on Monday Night Football versus the Eagles. Cam Newton is the start of the week. He heads into Arrowhead to face the 1-10 Chiefs. I look for Newton to have his way with their defense the way he did Philly.

Week 13 Sit em: I don’t usually go with two players from my own team, but I think that Ryan Mathews should ride the pine this week. He has only put up double digit (19) points once this season and that was against the New Orleans Saints earlier on in the year. He doesn’t match up well against the Bengals defense which has been playing very well lately.

Week 13 Random Thought: If you’re making a decision between two players, select the one that plays a prime-time game. We’ve seen much higher performances over the weeks from players who have Monday, Thursday, and Sunday night games. There must be something about playing underneath the lights that makes everything better.

Throughout the first three months of the season, the Colts defense has had to deal with injuries in each respective position group.

Perhaps no position has been hit as hard as the outside of the defensive line.

Nose tackle Antonio ‘Mookie’ Johnson has been a mainstay in the middle of the 3-4 hybrid defense but the players flanking the nose position will be ever-changing the rest of the season.

Fili Moala and Drake Nevis were placed on injured reserve at different times this month, sending Ricardo Matthews into the starting lineup.

The loss of Moala and Nevis means more playing time for Clifton Geathers, who was signed by the Colts at the start of October when Moala was inactive for four weeks.

“It’s hard to see a player go down,” Geathers said. “Fili and Drake, they helped me out a lot but as football goes on I do look at this as another opportunity, another football game, another day to get better.”

Geathers and defensive end Lawrence Guy (signed on Oct. 17) will take on a greater role in the coming weeks as the Colts continue to plug in interchangeable parts along the defensive line.

“We’ve just done a good job around here of having guys pick up the baton,” outside linebacker Dwight Freeney said. “Really hats off to management on bringing the right guy in so that he can fit right in and it’s not really a big deal. Obviously, it’s a big deal because you don’t want to lose Fili, you don’t want to lose those guys but it’s football and unfortunately these things happen.”

Earlier this week, the Colts signed defensive tackle Kellen Heard and interim head coach Bruce Arians is anxious to see the 6-foot-6-inches, 339-pound Heard in action.

After injuries with outside linebackers Robert Mathis and Freeney early in the season, the Colts defense was just starting to get completely healthy in the front seven before the losses of Moala and Nevis.

“When I look out there right now, the core guys are there,” interim head coach Bruce Arians said.
“We’re going to miss Fili (Moala), but we didn’t have him for three weeks, we know how to play without him, it’s not the first time. So plug in the guys that we have and never use it as a crutch or an excuse.”

While Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton (AFC Special Teams Player of the Week) continue to set rookie records, first-year teammates Vick Ballard and Dwayne Allen remain integral figures in the starting lineup.

Could tight end Coby Fleener be joining his fellow rookies on Sunday?

“I’m ready to be back,” Fleener said prior to practice on Wednesday. “I’ve been excited to be back for quite a while now and to be back on the practice field (Wednesday) will be exciting.”

Fleener has been on the sideline since injuring his shoulder in the first half of the Colts 19-13 overtime victory over the Titans on Oct. 28.

In the first seven games of the season, Fleener caught 21 passes for 222 yards.

While the Colts are in the midst of winning five of their past six games, Fleener has found himself merely as an observer.

“It’s been tougher to just sit in the training room all day and just do shoulder exercises and stuff like that. To see the team have success is exciting but at the same time, you want to be out there with your buddies,” he said.

Sunday could be that chance for Fleener to return to the playing field.

Last week, Fleener was limited in practice but he was a full participant on Wednesday and now he hopes all those mental reps over the past month turns into physical ones this weekend.

“You stay in the meeting room with the team and you go through all the mental preparation if you were playing,” Fleener said. “Obviously, the physical ailment didn’t allow me to do that but now I’m full go ahead.”

Instead, Vaughn uses another term to describe the 6-foot-5-inches, 236-pound Johnson.

“No, the ideal receivers are the other guys. Calvin is a ‘freak of nature.’ He’s the total package,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn and the Colts secondary will try and limit the league’s leading receiver at 1,257 yards.

Johnson is averaging 114.3 receiving yards per game and is looking for his fifth straight game over 100 receiving yards.

“(Johnson) brings everything,” cornerback Darius Butler said. “If you want to go create a receiver on Madden that’s going to look like Calvin Johnson. He brings everything to the table so we are going to have to bring our ‘A’ game.”

Last season, Johnson and the Lions ended a playoff drought dating back to 1999 with a 10-6 record and an appearance in the NFC Wild Card.

At 4-7, Johnson acknowledged that this season hasn’t gone as planned but heading into the final month of the season the Lions mindset remains the same.

“Guys are still pushing. That hasn’t changed here in practice or anything like that,” Johnson said. “That’s the thing I like about what’s going on right now. Even though, we are not where we thought we should be at right now, at this point of the season, guys are still working their butts off.”

The Colts defensive backs weren’t afraid to share their praise of Johnson and the All-Pro receiver appreciated the kind words from the guys he will line up across from Sunday.

“You play to be the best. You play to win the Super Bowl. You play to compete,” Johnson said. “If you do that and you’re taken seriously, and find something to work on day-in-and-day-out than you can achieve that.”

In trying to defend Johnson, the Colts secondary is hoping to get the services of cornerback Vontae Davis back this weekend.

Davis has been on the sideline for the past four weeks and with him and Jerraud Powers out of the lineup, it’s been Vaughn and Butler filling the void.

No matter who the Colts place in the backend of the defense on Sunday, trying to neutralize Johnson is a gargantuan task.

“You just have to be on your Ps and Qs, your fundamentals and techniques,” Butler said. “Obviously (Johnson) has a size mismatch on pretty much every (defensive back) out there but you just have to put yourself in a position to make a play on the ball.”

Week-after-week Reggie Wayne continues to find himself moving up the ranks of the game’s greatest receivers.

Wayne 1,105 yards receiving this season marks the eighth time in his career he has surpassed the 1,000-yard mark.

He needs six receptions to pass Andre Reed (951) for the 10th most catches in NFL history.

With 84 catches and 1,105 receiving yards this year, Wayne is putting together one of his finest NFL seasons.

Colts offensive coordinator Bruce Arians implemented a new offense in the offseason and credits the dedication of Wayne to learn all the nuances of an innovative system for his production.

“He’s basically a rookie in this offense with all the things that we’re asking him to do,” Arians said. “I think it’s revitalized him and he’s excited about doing all those different things.”

Lining up at a variety of positions for the first time in over a decade, Wayne’s versatility is showing in his 12th NFL season.

“You can’t ask Reg to do too many different things because he’s gutting it out blocking. He’s doing cut off blocks, going backside, blocking defensive ends. He’ll do whatever we ask him to do,” Arians said. “He knows he’s going to get the football and we are going to put him in positions to get him the football.”

Arians said the young Colts offense has ‘taken him back about 10 years’ but the 34-year old Wayne has also made things enjoyable for the Indianapolis offensive coordinator.

Looking into the future, Arians is hoping to find himself in Canton, Ohio one day watching Wayne get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

For now though, Arians is living in the present and he couldn’t be happier with how this team has grown up over the course of the season.

“We’ve got great veteran leadership and the young guys are doing everything they can to make sure Robert (Mathis), Dwight (Freeney) and Reggie, Cory (Redding) they all get into the playoffs again,” Arians said.

The Indianapolis Colts today signed safety Delano Howell from the Buffalo Bills practice squad to the Colts active roster and announced that guard Seth Olsen will return to practice. Olsen will remain on Injured Reserve during this time.

The Colts will have up to three weeks from today to elevate Olsen to the 53-man active roster or he will remain on Injured Reserve for the rest of the season.

Howell, 5-11, 201 pounds, has appeared in one game this season, making one tackle with the Buffalo Bills. He was originally signed by the Bills as an undrafted free agent out of Stanford on April 30, 2012. He was waived on October 13 and signed back to the active roster on October 15. Howell was then waived on November 9 and signed to the practice squad on November 12.

At Stanford, Howell started 33-of-43 games played and finished with 242 tackles (174 solo), seven interceptions and 19 passes defensed. As a senior in 2011, he was a First Team All-Pac-12 Conference selection after finishing with 52 tackles, four passes defensed, a fumble recovery and a forced fumble.

Olsen, 6-5, 305 pounds, has played in 12 games (four starts) in his career. He started at left guard for the first three games this season before being placed on Injured Reserve on October 8, 2012. Olsen was originally acquired by the Colts from waivers on September 12, 2011.

Heard, 6-6, 339 pounds, has played in 23 games (two starts) and has recorded 26 tackles (17 solo), two sacks and one forced fumble. This season, he has appeared in eight games with the St. Louis Rams, making five tackles (four solo). He was originally signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent on April 30, 2010 before being added to the practice squad on September 5. The Bills signed him to the active roster on December 11, 2010 and waived him on August 31, 2012. Heard was then acquired from waivers by the St. Louis Rams on September 1 and was waived on November 10.

Chapman, 6-0, 316 pounds, was originally selected by the Colts in the fifth round (136th overall) of the 2012 NFL Draft out of Alabama. He was placed on the Reserve/Non-Football Injury List on August 27, 2012 and was activated on November 12. He was inactive for the last two games.

Moala, 6-4, 310 pounds, has played in 48 games (39 starts) since being drafted by the Colts in 2009. He holds career totals of 86 tackles (54 solo), two sacks and two passes defensed. This season, Moala started in all eight games he played in and recorded 21 tackles (11 solo) and one pass defensed. He was inactive for three games.

What’s up Colts Nation? Last night was a glorious night for myself and team “Colts Fan Casey” in the fantasy world. Finally, after 12 weeks, the man I drafted in the first round, Cam Newton, decided to reward me with a great 40 point performance in the Panthers 30-22 win over the Eagles.

Believe it or not, this win gets me back into the playoff hunt as we have two more weeks remaining before the playoffs start in our league. I need to win the rest of my games and need two people above me to lose out, but the good news is I play one of them in the final week so there’s a chance!

This week has been better for me in fantasy and I have to give credit to one of the best recent additions I made in Colts WR T.Y. Hilton. This guy did work for me in the New England game and gave me a solid 10 points this week as well. Too bad I didn’t get any points for his punt return, which would’ve been nice.

The best part about this week’s W is that not only did I score over 100 points, but I almost doubled the guy I was playing whose team name is “Domination.” Nothing dominating about his performance this week except that he got dominated.

I head into a tough match up this week, but I think I can stand a chance. I will be bringing you my sit ‘em and start ‘em picks of the week here in a couple days, but I had to fill you in on my great performance this week!

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